A History of American Literature 1900 - 1950

A look at the first five decades of 20^th century American literature, covering a wide range of literary works, figures, and influences

A History of American Literature 1900-1950 is a current and well-balanced account of the main literary figures, connections, and ideas that characterized the first half of the twentieth century. In this readable, highly informative book, the author explores significant developments in American drama, fiction, and poetry, and discusses how the literature of the period influenced, and was influenced by, cultural trends in both the United States and abroad.

Considering works produced during America’s rise to prominence on the world stage from both regional and international perspectives, MacGowan provides readers with keen insights into the literature of the period in relation to America’s transition from an agrarian nation to an industrial power, the racial and economic discrimination of Black and Native American populations, the greater financial and social independence of women, the economic boom of the 1920s, the Depression of the 1930s, the impact of world wars, massive immigration, political and ideological clashes, and more. Encompassing five decades of literary and cultural diversity in one volume, A History of American Literature 1900-1950:

• Covers American theater, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, memoirs, magazines and literary publications, and popular media
• Discusses the ways writers dramatized the immense social, economic, cultural, and political changes in America throughout the first half of the twentieth century
• Explores themes and influences of Modernist poets, expatriate novelists, and literary publications founded by women and African-Americans
• Features the work of Black writers, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Jewish Americans

A History of American Literature 1900-1950 is essential reading for all students in upper-level American literature courses as well as general readers looking to better understand the literary tradition of the United States.

Preface vii

1 American Literature in 1900 1

Prose and Fiction: Taking on the New Century 3

Regional Fictions: Austin, Glasgow, Cather, and Roberts 23

Black Writing: The Washington and Du Bois Debate 33

American Theater in the First Decades 39

Native American Literature in the Early 1900s 43

Poetry Before the Modernists 47

The Chicago Renaissance: Masters, Lindsay, and Sandburg 49

The Poetry of Feeling: Teasdale, Millay, Wiley, and Bogan 57

The Poetry of Place: Jeffers, Robinson, and Frost 64

2 The Twenties: Becoming International 72

Innovation and American Theater in the 1920s 73

Prose in the American Grain: Lewis, Anderson, Faulkner 82

The Expatriates: “Being Geniuses Together” 96

“Making It New” Modernist Poetry and the 1920s 115

The South: Fugitives and Agrarians 139

The Harlem Renaissance 142

3 The Thirties: Depression and a Prelude to War 163

Poetry: Some Legacies of Modernism 168

Drama in the 1930s: After O’Neill 178

Fiction in the 1930s: A National and International Canvas 197

Black Writing in the 1930s 226

Immigrant Writing in the First Decades 234

Proletarian Literature 246

American Writers and the Spanish Civil War 263

4 WAR: “Thus dawn the 1940s…” 270

The Media: Books, Hollywood, and Television 270

Literature and the War: Fiction and Nonfiction 276

Literature and the War: Poetry 290

Literature and the War: Theater 302

5 Into Mid-Century 304

Native American Literature 1920–1950 304

Postwar Theater: The Early Careers of Inge, Williams, and Miller 317

Poetry into Mid-Century: Evaluating the Modernist Legacy 333

Black Writing into Mid-Century 356

Fiction in the 1940s 377

J. D. Salinger and Vladimir Nabokov 377

Southern Writing 382

Jewish American Fiction 394

Urban Fiction: Tales of Three Cities 402

Los Angeles 402

New York 408

Chicago 412

And Other Places: Past, Present, and Future 415

Past 415

Present 417

Future 424

References 434

Index 463

CHRISTOPHER MACGOWAN teaches modernist poetry and American literature at the College of William and Mary, where he is a William R. Kenan Jr. Professor. He is a specialist in the poetry of William Carlos Williams and has published on Sherwood Anderson, Denise Levertov, Ford Madox Ford, and Vladimir Nabokov. He is the author of Twentieth-Century American Poetry and The Twentieth Century American Fiction Handbook.

A readable, informative, and up-to-date look at the first five decades of twentieth-century American literature

Covering a wide range of literary works, figures, and influences, A History of American Literature 1900-1950 explores significant developments in American drama, fiction, and poetry. Author Christopher MacGowan discusses how the literature of the period influenced, and was influenced by, cultural trends and attitudes in both the United States and abroad.

This volume provides a well-balanced account of the main literary figures, connections, and ideas that characterized American literature of the period. Throughout the text, the author explores themes of Modernist poets and expatriate novelists, literary publications founded by women and African Americans, Native American and Asian American writers, the ways writers dramatized the enormous social, economic, cultural, and political changes in America, and much more.

Providing deep insights into how American writers reflected issues ranging from the racial and economic discrimination of the age to America’s transition from an agrarian nation to an industrial power, A History of American Literature 1900-1950 is essential reading for students in upper-level American literature courses and general readers with interest in the literary tradition of the United States.